Parts of the Celery Plant

Celery is a food crop known to require for a long, cool growing season and possess a somewhat embarrassing temperament. This plant is a biennial, meaning that’s is planted form seed and spends an increasing season developing vegetatively before flowering and producing seed during its second season. All parts of a celery plant are maybe consumed, but the most popular and widely-available component is generally the celery stalk.

Leaf Stalks

Celery plants can grow over 18 to 24 inches tall, with the bulk of the plant’s height composed of the celery stalks, sometimes referred to as “ribs,” which are actually leaf petioles. These stalks, which emerge from the celery plant crown at soil level, have a crunchy texture and delicate taste. The stalks in a celery crowd are called the celery heart. Celery leaf stalks are sometimes blanched by covering the stalks, basically blocking light from reaching the stalks for a week or two before crop, to lighten the stalks and give them a milder flavor.

Leaves

Exactly what are generally referred to as the leaves of the celery plant are situated at the peak of the leaf stalks. More particularly, a celery leaf surrounds the broad, stiff leaf foundation at ground level, the stalk, or petiole, and the lamina at the top. This lamina, the top of the leaf, which resembles Italian parsley leaves. Leaves are light or dark green and finely split, with leaflets which have lobed and toothed margins.

Roots

The celery plant root system is very limited, usually extending only approximately 6 to 8 inches away from the foundation of the stalks and growing only 2 to 3 inches deep. Because of this, regular humidity and adequate nutrients from the top few inches of soil are especially important in growing celery. Harvesting the celery plant by digging up the majority of the root system, keeping the roots attached to the plant and putting the whole plant in a trendy place in which the roots have been kept moist in a medium such as moist sand, can keep the celery clean for a longer period of time than if the stalks are severed in the root system at harvest.

Flowers and Seeds

In its second season, a celery plant stations energy into flowering and seed production. Flowers appear in horizontal discs containing lots of clusters of flowers with small white petals. The seeds, which are tiny and tan to dark brown and found from the blossoms, have a powerful pleasant scent. Celery seeds are used as a seasoning or stored and implanted to produce stalks in subsequent seasons.